I’m sitting here in a coffee shop trying to concentrate on writing my upcoming book called “Attention!”. In fact, I’ve been sitting here for almost two hours now, and I’ve probably written about 100 words.
Fail.
It occurs to me that despite my best attempts to focus on writing this book, I’m not getting it done as fast as I thought I would. Why? Well, probably a bunch of reasons.
1. The Deadline Isn’t Close Enough
Classic excuse eh? Are you like me and you are able to “perform” better when you’re on the spot? When you KNOW you MUST get it done? For example, when I’m on stage, I KNOW I have to bring it, so I do. Or when I’m about to have an important phone call with a client and I have things due to them, I KNOW I have to get it done. This book manuscript isn’t due until Jan. 15, 2010.
Now I know better than this. I KNOW that it will be a HUGE mistake to not have it close to being done before Christmas. I KNOW that I don’t want to be sitting in a closed room for 2-weeks prior to the deadline frantically writing and stressing out. Yet, here I am, not focusing, instead writing this blog post.
2. Social Media
I have Tweetdeck up and running on my other monitor all day long. I look at it probably every minute or more. It’s a HUGE distraction to me. Fortunately, I’ve closed it here, ok, I lied, it’s open, but I’m closing it as soon as I get done with this blog post.
The point is, social media is a distraction. We’re all so, ok, maybe just me, dependant now on knowing what everyone else is up to. Where they’re getting coffee at and how they’re partying in Vegas. It’s a good thing, to be vested in the lives of our friends and associates. But it’s a HUGE distraction for sure.
3. Gmail
This is worse than social media. I’m an email guy. My business revolves around email. All day, all night. On my phone, on my Mac. Wherever. Email rules me. It owns me. I know I should shut down Gmail and I’d get more done, but it’s oh so hard to do.
I’m interested in how you find ways to focus on goals? How do you get things done? For me, I’m a burst worker. That means that I go for long periods of time meandering around in my head and online plotting and thinking and formulating what needs to be done. Then, when it’s all cooked up in my head, I go, go, go… and produce a very large amount of high-quality work in a short, bursted, period of time.
My friend John Ettorre pointed out to me once that many famous people were burst workers. Einstein for example. Whew, so I’m like Einstein I guess? I wonder if he can come by this coffee shop and help me write this book.
Jim, I am doing the exact same thing! I have my girl hitting me up on Gchat, Text galore on my iphone and Twitter is full steam…
I read on doshdosh.com that she uses an egg timer and seriously manages her time in increments. I tried that but am too damn stubborn to stop in the middle of something when it goes off…which leads to another 30 minutes or more on that activity.
FML – hate to see how unproductive I'll be in 10 years….
Or maybe the digital natives just have a different standard for productivity. I mean seriously, who else in that coffee shop is doing anything productive?
Yeah, the egg timer is a good idea. I know what I have to do, I'm just not doing it. See #1 I think. :)
In ten years… you're right, the distractions are going to be monument. Scary.
Jim, I think that this moment is just not time to write the book. Maybe it's time to create a new workshop, reply to nagging emails, or make future plans.
At least you got the blog post done, and that contributes to your objectives too.
The main thing is to keep going and consider your time well used if it advances one of your many important objectives.
Until you commented on this, and I got the email saying you did, I was actually writing at a nice pace. Darnit Mark, it's your fault. :)
Hi Jim,
I know exactly how you feel when you know you should be focusing on something and aren't.
Is it called procrastination? I think that it's the way we are wired.
I know for example that if I had to do something which I normally thoroughly enjoy when I do it spontaneously, it would instantly become a chore.
And the e-mail thing is a problem for me too and most people that I know. I guess we want to know at all times if there is something new in our mailbox.
More often than not, at least for me it is a junk mail. But the possibility of an anticipated e-mail which can come at any time is irresistible.
I also work more in bursts and then I don't know when to stop.
Can we ever achieve the right balance?
Perhaps not but I'll keep on trying.
Vance
I am most definitely a burst worker…. and had too many deadlines all at once the past few weeks!!! You'll get it done, at least the deadline is before Summit!!!
It was sometime late in 1995; I had just established a dual dial-up system to connect to the internet. I'd been a geek for years, well, since 1981 anyway. So back to the story: I had just connected this thing up, had 56K up and 56K down – Wow, were things rockin! I remember the email I sent out that afternoon. It talked about how the internet was going to change our lives and we're going to be connected to other people in ways we had never dreamed possible. After all, I was chatting (live voice) with guys in Singapore and Japan via my computer (all completely for free) – I said, "Surely today, I feel I'm living in the future."
Things have come a long way from then and there are stories that fill the decade of time before, but ultimately we have become a society of multi-taskers. We multi-task almost every minute of every day. Well, maybe I should speak for me as opposed to everyone. But, I do know that I always have multiple projects on my desk (and desktop) every moment of every day.
Invariably, the struggle ensues when the deadline approaches. There have been a number of posts here relating to this particular phenomenon. Deadlines have a way of creating a clearer lens for us, they force us to "Hunker down," "Put our nose to the grindstone;" pick your favorite cliche.
Sometimes it is good to turn it all off for a while. Remember the last time you lost electrical power? Now, for the first few minutes, it's really annoying and you are scrambling to save anything that could be lost and shutdown programs before your battery backup runs out of juice. But then there we are left in this almost complete silence. The really cool and fascinating thing about that silence is that is when the ideas start rolling in. That's when the pad and pencil come out and you sit next to a window for light and you calmly and clearly scratch out ideas. It's in that silence where creation is born.
Good luck on that bad boy, Jim. And while Einstein's no longer around to help midwife it into being, I'll be happy to help at the appropriate moment. Good luck.